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FM meets Japanese businessmen, pushes to step up investments for ‘Make in India’

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on May 9 invited Japanese businessmen including Suzuki Motor Corp Chief Osamu Suzuki to participate in the “Make in India” initiative and step up investments in the country. Indian leaders have been actively engaged with their Japanese counterparts in the past few years as the country looks to the Asian partner […]

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on May 9 invited Japanese businessmen including Suzuki Motor Corp Chief Osamu Suzuki to participate in the “Make in India” initiative and step up investments in the country.

Indian leaders have been actively engaged with their Japanese counterparts in the past few years as the country looks to the Asian partner for a raft of mega projects such as the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train.

Jaitley met the Suzuki boss and discussed new initiative by the car maker, whose Indian subsidiary Maruti Suzuki holds more than 51 per cent share in the passenger vehicles segment.

Suzuki Motor Corporation along with Toshiba and Denso have already announced a Rs 1,200 crore investment in India to make lithium ion batteries for electric vehicles. While Suzuki will own a 50 per cent stake in the proposed joint venture, Toshiba will have 40 per cent and Denso 10 per cent.

During his five-day tour to the east Asian nation, Jaitley also invited Japanese conglomerates and financial institutions to boost investments and participate in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship Make in India initiative.

Japan has already set up a Make in India fund of 1.5 trillion yen (about Rs 83,000 crore), while India promised to devise a special package of incentives for attracting investments in Japanese industrial townships. Almost all the Japanese auto companies are ramping up capacities in India, to cash in on the world second most populous country and one of the fastest growing markets.

In March, Toyota President Akio Toyoda and Suzuki Chairman Osamu Suzuki met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss future technological development and plans for investments in India. The partnership is expected to bring together Toyota’s global leadership in technology and manufacturing with Suzuki’s strength in manufacture of small cars, especially in India.

The auto firms expect the partnership will promote Modi’s Make in India, create jobs, and enhance scope of export of new technology cars from India.

In April, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman discussed ways of enhancing trade and investment flows between the two Asian giants with the heads of Toyota, Suzuki, Hitachi, Aichi Prefecture and Soft Bank.

Foreign direct investment flows from Japan amounted to $25.2 billion since April 2000, ranking the country third after Mauritius and Singapore.